Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Shhhh!Don't spread the word! Three-day weekend. House party.White Rock House on Henry Island.You do not want to miss it.It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, which involve their school's most eligible bachelor, T. J. Fletcher, and look forward to three glorious days of boys, bonding, and fun-filled luxury.But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.Suddenly, people are dying, and with a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the rest of the world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for three days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

REVIEW

So I just finished Ten, and I have to say, wow is it gripping.

Fans of horror movies will see a lot of similar themes and
scares in Ten, but even so and even knowing where it might go, it was utterly
gripping. I honestly couldn’t put it down even though I knew I shouldn’t be
reading this at night, (as now I’m scared and have to read something happy and
more carefree), but wow if it wasn’t captivating.

Ten is filled with action, death, surprises, and as mentioned
before is gripping in a way that will keep readers stuck to their seats until
the last page. I’m not a fan of horror movies or books, but I do recommend this
for anyone looking for a shocking and captivating book, especially if you’re a
fan of the horror movie genre. Perfect for the Halloween season.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker's head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die – not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect . . . won’t he?

REVIEW

Do you remember
the Animorphs series? That was the product of the collaboration of Michael
Grant and Katherine Applegate. Since then, I’ve also been a fan of Grant’s BZRK
series, so I couldn’t wait to see what these two had up there sleeves in Eve
and Adam.

Eve and Adam
started from a re-imagining of the story of Adam and Eve, and the two authors
have done a wonderful job putting a new and fascinating spin on the old tale.
Readers will be spellbound as Eve struggles with the bonds and uncomfortable disconnects
of creating something as complex as a human, let alone the perfect boy.

But this story
isn’t just about a girl making the perfect boy instead it’s filled with action,
shocking secrets, moral decisions, and of course love.

I loved the way
the book stars with a terrible car crash reeling the readers in immediately,
and setting a precedent of action and adventure for the rest of the book. While
the book doesn’t meet this precedent throughout the entire novel, there are
plenty of action packed moments.

Besides the
action, readers will enjoy the alternating POV of the different characters. My
favorite character probably was Solo. He’s a strong, vengeful character, who is
forced to reconsider his motivation after seeing the world through the eyes of
Eve. He is likable and full of a take charge attitude that helps keep the story
going at a nice pace.

Of course, while
I really enjoyed the action and the characters, I did find a bit of the love
triangle aspect of the book a little much. I understand that is one of the
basic premises of the book, but I would have preferred it span over a longer
period of time before such drastic decisions were made on these feelings.

All in all I
liked Eve & Adam and can’t wait for the next book in the series. As the
story leaves off with readers itching to find out more about Adam and the
others.

He left his countryside home on the empty promise of a stranger, only to become a captive in a luxurious prison: Coudenberg Palace, the royal court of the Spanish Infanta. Nobody warned Jepp that as a court dwarf, daily injustices would become his seemingly unshakable fate. If the humiliations were his alone, perhaps he could endure them; but it breaks Jepp’s heart to see his friend Lia suffer.

After Jepp and Lia attempt a daring escape from the palace, Jepp is imprisoned again, alone in a cage. Now, spirited across Europe in a kidnapper’s carriage, Jepp fears where his unfortunate stars may lead him. But he can't even begin to imagine the brilliant and eccentric new master—a man devoted to uncovering the secrets of the stars—who awaits him. Or the girl who will help him mend his heart and unearth the long-buried secrets of his past.

REVIEW

Rarely do I read
a book that is written with such advanced skill as to evoke images of great poetry,
while at the same time possessing a level of ease allowing even the most
reluctant of reader to be swept into the story.

All of this
leaves only one word to describe Jepp, Who Defied the Stars.

Magical.

Now because you
probably want more from a review than just one word I’ll say a bit more about
the book. Jepp, Who Defied the Stars is one of the best written books I’ve read
in a long while. It is full of beautiful written scenery and descriptions, yet
gripping. It is filled with three dimensional characters that you see the
faults in, yet still understand there decisions, as they’ve been built as
humans not stick figured characters. And it moves at a startlingly quick pace
for a book that spends so much time describing the surrounding world and characters
in such in-depth detail.

Jepp is a
fantastic character. He is smart, likable, and fallible. Of course this ability
to make mistakes and be swayed by emotion is one of the reasons readers will
love Jepp, as they will commiserate with his journey and growth, getting
chocked up at the low points and feeling elated at the high. He is a well
crafted character who is just a kid learning as he’s forced into impossible
situations away from home.

Of course,
besides making Jepp a wonderful character, Marsh also does a fantastic job
recreating the world and situations of the 15 and 1600s. My personal favorite
fact based location/character was Tycho and Uraniborg, which I found
fascinating, reading as Tycho mapped the stars with nothing more than math they
discovered and rudimentary materials. Absolutely fascinating.

As you can
probably tell I very much Enjoyed Jepp, Who Defied the Stars. I thought it was
well written, gripping, original, and balanced story building with plot
development very well. All in all I would easily recommend this book to ANYONE
I happen to come across, adult or teen. Go buy it.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

REVIEW

The first thing
I have to say about this book is wow.

From the 1st
page to the last I was absolutely riveted. Even now having finished the book,
the first thing I did after reading the last page was look up the authors
website and see when the next book he’s writing is coming out. If that’s not a
sign of a good book, I don’t know what is.

Three Parts Dead
has a fantastic combination of characters. All the characters are compromised,
all them are filled with histories filled with shadows, and yet you find
yourself rooting for these broken characters. I know you’re supposed to love
the protagonist, but in this case I really did. Tara is strong, smart, and full
of piss and vinegar. Her history is almost as interesting as the back-story to
the world here (which I personally could have read an entire series on and
loved (not just a book but an entire series.))

That brings me
to the second thing I absolutely loved about Three Parts Dead, the rich history
of the God Wars and the system of magic that encompassed the book. As I
mentioned before I could read an entire series about the God Wars, what was
mentioned about this worlds history sound fascinating and thrilling. Gods
battling against craftsmen and women (basically human magicians), and the
transformation that occurs to these craftsmen over time, changing them from
their human bodies, to something of the stars, all in all this whole history
and back-story was fascinating. As for the system of magic, as a law student I
loved the fact that Gladstone created an entire system of magic based on and
for lawyers. Magic is based on contracts and agreements, with the craftiest and
sliest being those with the most power. Those who are not in law school may be
tripped up by terms such as law of perpetuities, but it is not a huge part of
the story, but something that will bring a smile to those who do understand.

All in all I
loved Three Parts Dead and can’t wait for the next book by Max Gladstone. It
had great characters, plenty of action, and is filled with fascinating
back-story and system of magic. Definitely recommended for fans of a darker
sort of magic.